Verse of the Day 8/18

Philippians 1:21  For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.  English Standard Version (ESV)

Today's verse is probably one of the easiest verses in the Bible to memorize but among the most difficult to put into practice.  To live as Christ is loving, caring, persevering, comforting, involves submission, forgiveness while trusting and depending on God the Father to supply all that we  need.

We all realize that we only have one life to live, at least at some point we will.  When we are young we may feel indestructible and may live life with abandon, not thinking
of the consequences.  But as we grow older we see the frailty of life, the brevity of these 70 or 80 years and as time goes we want to be able to leave behind some kind of
legacy.  It will be about how we lived.

Charles Orr writes, "This world is not a play-ground--or a place to trifle with time. Life is not given us to squander nor fritter away. To trifle away time, is indeed, to be the greatest of spendthrifts. If you squander a dollar--you may regain it; but a moment wasted--can never be regained. God gives us all the time we need to accomplish all that He purposes us to accomplish--but He does not give us one moment to trifle away.  We have only one life to live--only one!"

There was a soap opera that ran for many years, "One Life to Live", I don't know what it was about, but it was a soap opera.  All too often our lives could be soap operas, filled
with busyness and a revolving cast of characters that are soon forgotten.  Paul is encouraging, challenging us to live the life that Christ has for us, it will mean something, "He
who started the work will be faithful to complete it in me".  Philippians 1:6.  We are thinking about today, He is thinking about tomorrow and what can be accomplished with
the "one life" for all of us.

The Apostle Paul realized this as he penned today's verse and in other writings.  His goal was to persevere, to finish the race, to win the prize, the upward call of Christ which
is the ultimate gain which comes at the end of this life.

Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever;
One day He's coming—oh, glorious day!

If we live for Him, we will love and we will experience "life versus even more life!  I can't lose".(The Message)  --   In Christ,  Mike    Folllow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com  Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,  in accordance with the riches of God's grace.  NIV    

Philippians 1:21The Message (MSG)

^18-21 So how am I to respond? I've decided that I really don't care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on!

And I'm going to keep that celebration going because I know how it's going to turn out. Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done. I can hardly wait to continue on my course. I don't expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn't shut me up; they gave me a pulpit! Alive, I'm Christ's messenger; dead, I'm his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can't lose.